ion of Vishnu as the Horse-necked.
Nilakantha explains suvarnakhyam Jagat to be Veda prancha, i.e., the whole
Vedas with all their contents. According to him, the sense of the passage
is that Vishnu in that form swells with his own voice the Vedic notes
chanted by the Brahmanas.

10. Patauti Jalam sravantiti patalam. Thus Nilakantha.

11. Literally, one that hath a beautiful or excellent face.

12. The story of Viswamitra's promotion to the status of a Brahmana is
highly characteristic. Engaged in a dispute with the Brahmana Rishi
Vasishtha, Viswamitra who was a Kshatriya king (the son of Kusika) found,
by bitter experience, that Kshatriya energy and might backed by the whole
science of arms, availed nothing against a Brahmana's might, for
Vasishtha by his ascetic powers created myriads and myriads of fierce
troops who inflicted a signal defeat on the great Kshatriya king. Baffled
thus, Viswamitra retired to the breast of Himavat and paid court to Siva.
The great God appeared and Viswamitra begged him for the mastery of the
whole science of weapons. The god granted his prayer. Viswamitra then
came back and sought an encounter with Vasishtha, but the latter by the
aid only of his Brahmanical (bamboo) stick baffled the fiercest weapons
of Viswamitra, of even celestial efficacy. Humiliated and disgraced,
Viswamitra set his heart on becoming a Brahmana. He gave up his kingdom
and retiring into the woods with his queen began to practise to severest
austerities. After the expiration of ten thousand years, the Creator
Brahma appeared before him and addressed him as a royal Rishi. Dispirited
at this, he devoted himself to still severer austerities. At last, at
Dharma's command (as here referred to) the great Kshatriya king became a
Brahmana. This, in the Hindu scriptures, is the sole instance of a person
belonging to a lower order becoming a Brahmana by ascetic austerities.

13. These articles of cognate origin are clarified butter, milk, and
other things used as libations in sacrifices.

14. i.e., the subdivisions of the Pranava, the mysterious Mantra, which
is the beginning of everything, were first promulgated here. Nilakantha
supposes this to refer to the origin of the Vedas, the Upanishads, and
the various branches of the Srutis and the Smritis.

15. Small divisions of time.

16. The limbs that should be 'prominent' or 'elevated' in order to
constitute an indication of beauty or auspiciousness are variously
mentione